What are the equipment restrictions for NPC/Hirelings in Diablo 2?

Question

I am playing my way through Nightmare Diablo 2 on Battle.net closed servers and because of the swarming that's occurring I've decided to bite the bullet and get a hireling to come help out.

My act 1 hireling seemed to be restricted to bow weapons. My act 2 defensive hireling comes with a spiffy cold effect but seeems to be restricted to pole arms, without a shield regardless of the class of pole arm (ie 1 handed pole arms should allow a shield, but don't).

What are the restrictions on hirelings and what other bonuses might I discover?

Answer

Those Hirelings are also known as Mercenaries. As listed on Diablowiki.net only the weapon and off-hand slots have restrictions as followed:

Rouge Scouts (Act I)

• Only Bows (NO Crossbows or Amazon only Bows)
• can use Cold Arrow or Fire Arrow in addition to Inner Sight

Desert Mercenaries (Act II)

• Spears, Javelins and Polearms (no Amazon only equipment)
• use Jab Attack and have a Aura dependent on type and difficulty they were bought in

Iron Wolves (Act III)

• Shield and Sword

• skills depend on type:

  Inferno or Fireball for Fire
  Glacial Spike, Ice Blast, Frozen Armor for Cold
  Charged Bolt and Lightning Bolt for Lightning

• they will not hit much with the sword - look for caster-bonus on it!

Barbarians (Act V)

• Barbarian class-specific items, one sword (no dual-wielding)
• use Bash and Stun

Additionally to the type restrictions, mercenaries follow the items requirements for Strength, Dexterity and Level. Back when I played Diablo II, act II Mercenaries were the most common choice due to their buff-auras.

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